Situated Technologies Pamphlets: Ubiquitous Computing, Urbanism, Architecture!

I just discovered Situated Technologies! This is “a project by Omar Khan, Trebor Scholz, and Mark Shepard, is a co-production of the Center for Virtual Architecture, The Institute for Distributed Creativity (iDC), and the Architectural League of New York.”

9 pamphlets have been published over 3 years and they presented as conversations with technologists, engineers, philosophers, academics, architects, programmers and more!

I am most excited about this series because it specifically looks at the macro - how architecture and urbanism changes in the context of ubiquitous computing, and the micro - how situated technologies (ubiquitous computing) changes the way people experience urban space and go about their daily lives.

Since i’m really into studying narratives about free-information right now, I’ve found a trove of citations and analysis in Matthew Fuller’s and Usman Haque’s pamphlet.

What lessons can architecture learn from software development, and more specifically, from the Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement? Written in the form of a quasi-license, “Urban Versioning System 1.0” posits seven constraints that, if followed, will contribute to an open source urbanism that radically challenges the conventional ways in which cities are constructed.

Check out all the other awesome pamphlets.  I’ve added them to the Digital Urbanism reading list.

1. Greenfield, A. and Shepard, M. Situated Technologies Pamphlets 1: Urban Computing and Its Discontents. The Architectural League of New York, New York, NY, 2007.

2. Fuller, M. and Haque, U. Situated Technologies Pamphlets 2: Urban Versioning System 1.0. The Architectural League of New York, New York, NY, 2007.

3. Bratton, B.H. and Jeremijenko, N. Situated Technologies Pamphlets 3: Suspicious Images, Latent Interfaces. The Architectural League of New York, New York, NY, 2008.

4. Beesley, P. and Khan, O. Situated Technologies Pamphlets 4: Responsive Architecture/Performing Instruments. The Architectural League of New York, New York, NY, 2008.

5. Bleecker, J. and Nova, N. Situated Technologies Pamphlets 5: A synchronicity: design fictions for asynchronous urban computing. The Architectural League of New York, New York, NY, 2009.

6. Frei, H. and Böhlen, M. Situated Technologies Pamphlets 6: MicroPublicPlaces. The Architectural League of New York, New York, NY, 2010.

They also provide an excellent reference list on digital urbanism. I need to make some time to update my list with their citations.